Feature Request: Better Hotkeys

[WickedPixie]

This request is for either being able to assign all tool hotkeys yourself or at least simpler selection shortcuts. I'm assuming the former is a lot more work than the latter so I'll focus my feedback on simplifying some shortcuts.

 

Personally, for sprite work my most used selection tools are Magic Wand & Lasso select in that order. Currently, flipping between those tools requires me to click an ungodly amount of S keys (exaggerating a bit here but I do actually suffer from chronic pain and it really has caused some issues for me personally). I can understand the logic of having some tools require double-clicks of a specific button and I think the [S]x1 for the Rectangle Selection followed by an [S]x2 for the Elliptical Selection would be perfectly reasonable and even fairly intuitive. But having Lasso in the middle of the two shaped selections breaks that intuitive link and adding the Magic Wand at the end to the same hotkey makes it even worse. With the amount of repetitions you need in order to actually reach the desired tool, it starts to make the process more inconvenient than outright moving the mouse and manually clicking – which defeats the purpose of hotkeys.

On a slightly different note, many standard laptop keyboards (or even compact / bluetooth ones) do not have the [Delete] key readily accessible. Instead there's [Backspace], which is used in most apps for the same purpose. The Fill tool currently has two hotkeys: the intuitive left click and the superfluous [Backspace]. I believe the Fill tool would be fine with just the single left click or, if a secondary option were truly desired, having something along the lines of [Shift]+[F] (to fill with the secondary color simply preface the whole thing with [X]). That would then open [Backspace] to serve as the Erase tool's hotkey, with the ability to keep [Delete] as an alternative for those who have it stored in their muscle memory at this point.

Sincerely,
A 25-year-old pixel artist with the crippling joint problems of a 75-year-old grandma 🙃
( Even if none of these points are considered as good alternatives for the current system, I still want to thank the team for making this incredible resource )

TL;DR - My Proposal:

• Swap Lasso & Elliptical Selection spots on the UI
• Rectangular Selection keeps the hotkey [S]x1
• Elliptical Selection is reassigned the hotkey [S]x2
• Magic Wand is assigned a unique hotkey – [W]
• Lasso is assigned a unique hotkey – [Q]
  • [L] would be more intuitive but that's already assigned to the Clone Stamp, so I picked [Q] arbitrarily because it was unused and next to [W]
• Erase is assigned the intuitive/more common hotkey – [Backspace]
  • The [Delete] hotkey would stay as an alternative shortcut
• Fill gets confined to either just a left click once the tool has been selected or changed to a more intuitive hotkey – [Shift]+[F]
  • Filling with the alternate color could still be done with a right click but it does not merit a hotkey, in my opinion; at best it can be listed as [X]  +  [Shift]+[F]

[BlastOfBN]

I’ve seen people on the forums post their requests like these, but in your situation, I guess you could actually be able to benefit from less manpower consuming keybinds, as this is the first time I’ve heard something like this on here.

 

Often when stuff involving the way shortcuts work in PDN get posted on here, they often give you the same response of “try and get used to the way our keybinds are laid out”, but in a situation where one cannot press certain keys or even reach them, I guess the only thing I can do is go in your favor!

 

Custom keybind shortcuts and/or easier keybind layouts have been requested often, and the developers often turn it down, as they believe that the layout will eventually grow on the user (it did for me), but after hearing your problem with your chronic pain, I can’t help but feel your pain.

 

This might be the first time that Rick considers adding customizable keybind layouts if he ever sees this. In fact, we might need more accessibility settings for PDN, considering the point the software is at now in this day and age (a lot of other software is starting to implement accessibility settings, so shouldn’t Paint.NET do the same thing too? That way, anyone with a disability or an injury can use the program easier).

 

This could be the start of an era for PDN… (and that’s a good thing!)

[BoltBait]

51 minutes ago, WickedPixie said:

Erase is assigned the intuitive/more common hotkey – [Backspace]

• The [Delete] hotkey would stay as an alternative shortcut

 

 

Currently, Delete key removes all pixels from the selection (i.e. turns all pixels transparent).

 

Backspace key fills the selection with the primary color.  Shift-Backspace fills the selection with the secondary color.

[BoltBait]

54 minutes ago, WickedPixie said:

[Shift]+[F]

 

This is currently used for Repeat last Effect.

 

Good luck changing that.  EVERYONE hates it when you change key bindings.

[BlastOfBN]

 

1 minute ago, BoltBait said:

 

Good luck changing that.  EVERYONE hates it when you change key bindings.

Yeah, I think we might be running out of keys to use…

 

All problems aside, we’ll just have to see if there’ll be any compromise we can find.

[Tactilis]

59 minutes ago, WickedPixie said:

and adding the Magic Wand at the end to the same hotkey makes it even worse
...
With the amount of repetitions you need in order to actually reach the desired tool

This doesn't address the general point you make, but please note that if you press Shift + letter  the tools are selected in the reverse order:

i.e.
Shift+S  x 1  Magic Wand
Shift+S  x 2  Ellipse Select
Shift+S  x 3  Lasso Select
Shift+S  x 4  Rectangle Select

So, I use S and SS for  the first 2 tools (Rectangle and Lasso) and Shift+S and Shift+SS for the last 2 (Magic Wand and Ellipse).

The same logic applies to:
Move Selected Pixels (M) and Move Selection (Shift+M), although it's just as quick to type MM for the later.
Line Curve (O) and Shapes (Shift+O), although it's just as quick to type OO for the latter.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Tactilis

[Rick Brewster]

1 hour ago, Tactilis said:

This doesn't address the general point you make, but please note that if you press Shift + letter  the tools are selected in the reverse order:

i.e.
Shift+S  x 1  Magic Wand
Shift+S  x 2  Ellipse Select
Shift+S  x 3  Lasso Select
Shift+S  x 4  Rectangle Select

So, I use S and SS for  the first 2 tools (Rectangle and Lasso) and Shift+S and Shift+SS for the last 2 (Magic Wand and Ellipse).

The same logic applies to:
Move Selected Pixels (M) and Move Selection (Shift+M), although it's just as quick to type MM for the later.
Line Curve (O) and Shapes (Shift+O), although it's just as quick to type OO for the latter.

 

I've filed issues to track: 1) adding this to the in-app tooltip (should land for v5.0.4), and 2) adding it to the documentation

[Rick Brewster]

Does Shift+S for Magic Wand, or Shift+S x2 for Ellipse Select, help? (versus S x4 or S x3) I can imagine that reaching for Shift could worsen the joint pain.

 

Adding alternative keys for the tools is a reasonable idea. I'm pretty sure W is available for Magic Wand, for instance. L is already used for Clone Stamp, however, so it's not a good choice for Lasso. There are a few letters used for tool-specific shortcuts, like 'A' is used for cycling between shapes when the Shapes tool is active.

 

Also, Effect -> Repeat is Ctrl+F, not Shift+F. However, Shift+Letter must be reserved for tool switching, it can't be used for menu commands. 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

On 3/28/2023 at 11:53 AM, Rick Brewster said:

 

I've filed issues to track: 1) adding this to the in-app tooltip (should land for v5.0.4), and 2) adding it to the documentation

 

PR filed on Github just now to update the Docs with regard to Shift + letter to reverse the order of multiple key presses.